OF Half a Million ofGeukuia i ijhjlukln, 



A PLEA 



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BY 



Atticus G. Haygood. 



ATLANTA, GA. : 
The Con'Stitittion PuBUsiriNG Comi'aw. 

isas. 



LIBHAHY 

BTJEEAU OF EDUCATION 




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The Cry of Half a Million of Georgia's Children, 



A PLEA 



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■FOR — 



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BY 



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Atticus G. Haygood. 



ATLANTA, GA. : 
The Constitution Publishing Company. 






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The Cry of Half a Million Children. 



There i^ tliat seattereth and yet inereaseth, and there is that withhuld- 
oth mure tliau is meet, and it tendeth to poverty. Prov. xi, 24. 

And they were the more Heree, saying, he stirreth up the people 
teaehing. Luke xxiii, 5. 

I THANK Dr. Lf:e, pastor of Trinity Church, Atlanta, 
for inviting me to make a plea to-night for half a million 
children in Georgia who need and deserve better opportuni- 
ties for elementary education than they can get without 
more help from the State that gave them birth, and whose 
destinies they will some day control. I am glad the cause 
of these children is on his heart. Would God a thousand 
preachers in Georgia felt as he. If there were, twelve 
months would revolutionize public sentiment upon this 
most vital question, and the day of our deliverance from the 
apathy and darkness of illiteracy, would begin to dawn. 
It cannot hurt a Christian pulpit to plead for the poor. It 
is in harmony with the kingdom of Him who is " making 
a new earth " that in His own time He may bring men 
unto a new Heaven. 

a settled question. 

Whether we will adopt the policy of State-supported 
public schools in Georgia, is not now a question in debate. 
Before the Revolution that, in 1861, broke out into war, 
there was some discussion among us concerning public 
schools, and sore need of more. The discussion was rele- 
vant to the facts of that time, for we had no public schools. 
There was then little concern among us about the education 
of the masses, and nearly half the population were by law — 
made necessary by the conditions of life at that time — 
debarred all opportunity for instruction in books. After 
the Revolution public schools were inevitable. Their neces- 



sity was made manifest ; the new facts were insistent, and 
the need was exigent. We had tried to stand our educa- 
cational pyramid on its apex, and had failed. 

The policy of public schools, for elementary education, 
supported or aided by the State, was asserted in the Consti- 
tution that was evolved out Oi the reconstruction period- 
When, in 1879, the people of Geoigia met in convention, 
to reconsider and recast their Constitution, they said: 
<' We will have public schools for our children," and in the 
organic law, commanded the Legislature to provide them. 

Some excellent people say they do not believe in public 
schools, and some believe that the State, in the nature of 
things, has no function in this business. The objection 
comes too late ; in a republic, what the people affirm to be 
a function of government is a function of government. If 
the minority cannot agree with the majority, and cannot 
change its opinion, there remains one of three things — sub- 
mission, revolution, or emigration. Wherefore, I say, 
unless objectors propose to change the organic law of the 
State, their objection comes too late. 

SYSTEM OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD. 

The organic law concerning public schools in Georgia, 
cannot be changed. Little as our concern for the education 
of the masses is, we care enough to vote down aud out any 
party or any candidate proposing to do away with our pub- 
lic schools. 

The public school for elementary education is not pecul- 
iar to Georgia ; it is the American system ; it is in the organic 
law of every State in the Union. It is the system of well 
nigh the civilized world. Even Japan has introduced the 
public school system, and pays her teachers better than 
Georgia does. 

If we could at this time overturn our public school sys- 
tem, would it be a good thing to do? For one, I should 
favor doing away with the public schools if either one of 
two things could be made plain to me. First, that leaving 



5 

the masses in ignorance is in itself a good thing; or if, 
second, some better lever than State-supported public schools 
has been found Un- lifting the masses out of the mire of 
ignorance. 

BLESSINGS OF IGNORANCE. 

Not many believe iu the blessings of ignorance, except 
with qualifications; still fewer, except in select circles, have 
the hardihood to advocate their belief. No man in his 
senses believes ignorance to be a good thing for him ; no 
man not too ignorant to think, and not too mean to care, 
believes ignorance to be a good thing for his children. 

Not a few seem to think that ignorance is very good for 
certain others they call " the masses." And this they think 
*' not that they care for the poor," but because they 
would keep them poor. If we dig through their words 
down to their real thought, it is simple as it is selfish : " It 
is best for me that certain people abide in ignorance ; I can 
manage them more easily, and can hire them more cheaply." 

This narrow meanness is veiled by a show of fair words. 
I have heard such men philosophizing. They will tell 
their familiars — they are ashamed to say such things to the 
poor themselves — " Going to school tends to make the 
poor discontended with their lot in life." Thank God! it 
does. No greater curse could fall upon the poor than this 
sort of contentment that is little better than the stagnation 
of mental and moral death. 

But these niiserable pretenders care not for the trouble 
that such discontent gives to the poor ; but for the incon- 
venience it may bring to those whose lot in life is different. 
There is no honesty in this sort of philosophy concerning 
the blessings of ignorance ; it is sham and hypocricy from 
top to bottom. The proof of insincerity is perfect; its advo- 
cates never practice their doctrine as to themsel'^es and 
their own children. 

THE MASSES AND THOSE WHO SNEER. 

Not a few sneer at all efforts " to elevate the masses," as 



6 

both a chimerical and dangerous experiment of certain ill- 
balanced people, whose arguments and works are, as they 
suppose, finally disposed of by calling them " humanitas 
rians," '^ visionaries," " fanatics," " cranks." It is the sort 
of sentiment that English lordlings ieel when they de- 
nounce glorious Gladstone and persecute brave Parnell 
because they plead for Irish peasants that the chief end of 
existence for a poor tenant farmer is not alone to pay rents 
to absentee landlords. 

Certain it is that no man counting himself as among the 
"masses" sneers at efforts to lift them up. The sneer- 
come fVom certain people, more prosperous than good, who, 
feeling themselves to be lifted uj) — whethei' by the acci- 
dents- of fortune or blood — iear tluit their j)rivileges will be 
lessened when those below them hcgin to move. It is easy 
to understand both the contempt and fear of those — siiy 
"higher classes" if you will — who contemjjlate with unrest 
the betterment of the conditit)n of the poor and lowly, 
Such jeeling among the " privileged classes" are not pecu- 
liar to our times. So in old Rome the i)atricians felt 
towards their plebeian neighbors. We could not expect 
better things of that collossal paganism. But such senti- 
ments ;ire out of harmony with Christian civilization^ 
Where Christ reigns, sucli sentiments die. In ancient 
Jerusalem the Scribes, the Pharisees and the Herodians 
looked with contempt and wrath — dashed with fear — u])on 
the efforts of (he Man of Galilee to instruct the ignorant 
and to help tlie helpless o( His time. To them — " preserv- 
ing their game" and nur.sing theii- respectaljilities — He was 
an agitator and an innovator. When Roman Pilate declai'ed 
from tlie judiiment scat, " I find no fault in this Man," 
and the chiel priests could bring no other charge against 
him, "they we^.e the more fierce, saying, ' He stii'reth up 
the jieojile, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from 
Galilee to this place.'" 

But the people, these " masses," are the majority of the 
human race and the best part of it; theii' cause is the cause 



of God, who is very jealous of their rights, ever listening 
as a Father to their bitter cry, and they will yet be lifted 
up by Him who " draws all men unto Himself." 

BUT IS THERE ANY BETTER WAY 

of educating the people than by State-supported public 
schools? Most of the people are poor; with them the bur- 
dens of simply living are heavy. They are not able to 
educate even in the rudiments their children. But the 
whole people are easily able, without serious burdens, to 
educate the children of all the people. 

If, in such a work, the well-to-do bear more of the bur- 
den than the poor, this is as it ought to be. It is the 
instinct of human justice that it should be so ; it is the law 
of God. Sound political economy, the philosophy of 
republican government, and the Christian religion make it 
the duty as well as the policy of the State to provide for the 
education of all its children. 

LOCAL OPTION DOUBLY SURE TO FAIL. 

This work cannot be left to local option. Most of our 
cities and a few of our richer counties have, under local 
option, taxed themselves to ])rovide good schools for their 
children. The splendid results show what blessings would 
come to the whole people, if schools as good were in every 
county and village in the State. The trouble in local option 
is, the counties that most need the schools are doubly sure 
not to get them ; being the most illiterate, they do not wish 
for them and would vote against them, and being the poorest, 
they could not provide for them if they wanted them. The 
worst result of ignorance is, perhaps, that the untaught 
know not the blessings of education and do not care for 
them. If it be left to communities whether they will pro- 
vide themselves good schools, education will be put in 
jeopardy. 

The richer must help the poorer ; the more intelligent 
guide the more ignorant. For we have not here a question 



only as to what people wish, but also as to what they ueed. 
Moreover, it is a question most grave and radical, whether 
the richer and more enlightened communities can afford that 
their partners in government should forever remain unfit to 
do their part with credit. The evils that grow out of illit- 
eracy cost government ten times more than it would cost 
to educate the whole people. 

Consider Georgia in the regions where there is the greatest 
need. Think of our fellow citizens among the mountains, 
in the wire grass, and in the more thinly settled counties 
near the coast. In these sections are some of the noblest 
and most cultured of our people ; they have done their best 
to bring up their counties ; the burden has been too great 
for them and they have failed. The State of Georgia needs 
good schools in the Blue Ridge counties and the wire grass 
as in the richer sections and more prosperous cities. For 
these people are our brethren and they are our partners in 
the difficult business of government. 

The whole people should see to it that the whole property 
of the people provide good schools for the children of the 
people. 

CHURCH DREAMERS. 

There are dreamers who talk of educating the people by 
the churches. This is idle talk. The churches cannot do 
it. I do not say "the Church," but the "churches" — their 
name is Legion. Their diversities, not to say divisions, 
make unity of effort impossible. So far from being able 
to provide schools for all the people, the churches in Geor- 
gia have not been able to take proper care of their three 
or four colleges. They have beggared and slain them 
rather. I have said " not able ;" it is intolerable to think 
that they could and would not. 

But why ask such questions about the churches in rela- 
tion to common schools? Whether able or unable to do 
this work, everybody knows that the churches never have 
done it, have never tried to do it and are not now so much 



as thinking of trying to do it. And yet with half a million 
children in Georgia of school age and tast outgrowing the 
period of instruction, many good church people, with not 
a purpose or thought of doing anything themselves, revile 
the public schools, not because the State has starved them 
into inefficiency, but because it so much as set them going 
at all. 

If in theory there were unanswerable arguments against 
State-supported public schools, these arguments are over- 
turned by invincible facts. We have the public schools 
and they have come to stay. The one question now is, 
whether we will make the best of them or the worst of them. 
So far we have made the worst of them. 

HOW WE OBEY THE CONSTITUTION. 

After what manner is the State carrying out the organic 
law ■? Let us seek the cold facts, without reference to any 
incidental or collateral matters. A few simple statements, 
taken from official records will be enough to make peo- 
ple think, who ever think ; to make ashauied all who care 
for the honor of their State; to make anxious all who have 
hope of its future ; to stir the hearts and consciences of all 
who love their fellow men. 

The Department of Education for Georgia has this year 
taken a new school census — the first since 1882. Between 
the ages of" 6 and 18," the school age in Georgia, there are 
560,281 children and young people. Whites, 292,624; 
negroes, 267,657. (The negro is not, it seems, " dying 
out ;" he is not solving his problem that way — there were 
only 231,114 colored children of school age in Georgia in 
1880.) 

What is the sum total of public money from all sources 
provided for the primary education of this army of chil- 
dren ? We will take the figures for 1887 — the returns lor 
1888 not being all in hand. The entire sum raised by the 
State and by cities and counties under local law for 1887 
was $795,987.26. Of this sum the cities and counties under 
local law and for local use raised $302,477.74. 



10 



But most of Georgia's children are outside those cities 
and counties that, under local option, so nobly supplemented 
the meagre State fund. Of the whole number, 500,281, 
490,270 do not live in such cities and counties. It is worse 
than this ; for 465,738 of Georgia's children live outside of 
all incorporated cities, towns and villages. As we are 
accustomed to phrase it, they are country children. If an 
Atlanta audience would understand what the State school 
fund can do for half a million children — whose only depen- 
dence for help is the State iund — let us imagine the condi- 
tion of things in this city if the money Atlanta raises for 
her splendid school system were all taken away and your 
children have only what the country children have. 

" EIGHTY-SEVKN CENTS." 

Add to the sum directly disbursed by the Commissioner 
— minus the cost of county school superintendence, which 
in 1887 was $25,051.19 — the poll tax retained in the coun- 
ties (it was in 1887 1184,187.93) and we have a total of 
$489,250.47. This is to be divided among the 560,281 
children. If all were at school it would yield ^bout 87 
cents for each child, for the school year of three months. 

ONE IN — TWO OUT. 

Let us see how it works in the country. Take a rartic- 
ular county — a county better oif than the average — my own 
county of DeKalb. In this county for 1888 there were 63 
schools receiving aid (rom public sciiool money. The total 
school fund for DeKalb county (estimating as the county 
Superintendent does the poll tax as $100 more than last 
year) is $4,834.34. The total number of children of school 
age in the county is 5,150. The amount actually paid for 
each scholar is $2.60. -vThat is, if each child at school 
received $2.60 it is only because about two out of three 
children do not go to school at all. 



11 



ODDS AND ENDS. 



Our backwardness in public education is illustrated by 
the method we employ to raise our 87 cents for each child, 
as well as by the meagre sum itself. It is a gathering of 
odds and ends. The only certain item of consequence is the 
yearly half rental of the Western and Atlantic Railroad — 
that our fathers built. (Surely we might let tlie whole 
rental go towards the education of their grand children.) 
There is a small item, tolerably certain, but less than $2,000, 
dividends on a little Georgia Railroad stock owned by the 
State. Then we have the tax on " shows" — small and 
uncertain and not quite |4,000. The liquor tax, a variable 
quantity, comes in to the extent of $65,392.20. (It might 
be discussed by some debating society whether a contribu- 
tion as small as this is an off-set to the "consequential dam- 
ages" incident to the business itself?) The "hire of con- 
victs," another variable item, is nearly $20,000. (This is 
cheap labor.) The inspection of fertilizers yields nearly 
$100,000, but this is also a variable quantity. The poll 
tax, also variable, is about $185,000. In rai.sing our 87 
cents we have made the schools dependent for the most pa.'t 
on the chances and changes nf trade and crime. 

If our law should remain as it is, the Commissioner's 
best hope for an increased fund must be in the increased 
use of imjKtrted fertilizors, more shows, more whisky drink- 
ing, and more convicts. Truly it is a distressing case ; we 
sadly need more money for our schools, but many of the 
sources of supply are themselves evils so far reaching that 
we might almost choose to abide in ignorance. 

GOOD AS THE PAY AND BAD AS THE WOI^ST. 

Now, let us look at the schools that our beggarly fund 
keeps going for about two and a half or three months in 
the year for less than half the children. What sort of 
schools are they? As good as the money will buy. Geor- 
gia puts less money in education than any State in the 



12 

Union, of equal ability, and has public schools so poor that 
if there be any worse. I know not where they are to be 
found. Exaggeration is hardly possible. Most of them 
are poor and miserable indeed. In seeking to be perfectly 
just in describing them, perhaps one should say — they are 
better than nothing. It would be risky to go further. 
But they are as good as the pay, and as good as Georgia 
can get for the pay. 

A GOOD ANATOMY. 

There is no trouble with our Georgia school system ; it is 
patterned alter the best in America. Its anatomy is all 
right; the bones are sound and in place. What it wants is 
muscle to cover its bones, and blood to I'ound out its mus- 
cles. 

It is the simplest thi g in the world. A poor teacher 
makes a poor school ; poor pay secures a poor teacher, and 
will to the end ol time. Some men would rather own a 
scrub cow than a Jersey of "Teuella's 'ine ;" but even 
these men, despising thoroughbreds in the name of "con- 
servatism," know that they can't get a Jersey for the 
price of a scrub. Yet demand a good teacher for the pay 
of a hod-carrier, and if the teacher has the misfortune to 
be a woman, wants her labor for less. " Cheap doctors," 
'' cheap teachers," " cheap judges," " cheap governors," to 
say nothing of " cheap preachers;" these phrases tell of 
poor economy. 

Nothing known to me better illustrates Solomon's saying? 
"There is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tend- 
eth to poverty," and nothing is further from illustrating 
the other saying, " there is that scattereth and yet increas- 
eth," than our use of the school fund of Georgia. 

A RAILROAD WITHOUT A LOCOMOTIVE. 

Nothing is so wasteful as the parsimony that does not 
spend enough to accomplish its purpose ; by so much as it 
falls short it is as water poured forth. We spend just enough 



13 

public money in primary education in common schools to do 
the least possible good and the greatest possible harm. Just 
enough to cripple little private schools, but not enough to 
make good public schools. This is a fair statement of the 
case in Georgia to-day, in the rural districts, where most of 
our people are. It is not much better in the small towns 
and villages. 

As if a builder and eqnipper of railroads should grade 
a roadbed, lay his track, put some cars upon it, and yet not 
spend enough to get a locomotive. A tramway, a Middle 
Georgia dirt road — and there are no worse in civilization — 
with a yoke of oxen and a two-wheeled cart, is a better 
thing than a railroad without an engine. But railroaders 
are men of sense ; when they build roads they put enough 
money in them to make them go. We put just enough 
money in public schools to give the people a low idea of 
education, Solomon's word fits us : " There is that with- 
holdeth more than is meet, and it lendeth to poverty." 

GEORGIA LEADS ILLITERACY. 

What of the need of better education and more diffused 
education in Georgia? What are the facts? We must 
respect facts or cease to think. I rest my case at this point 
with one simple statement, backed by the tenth census : 
Georgia has more souls, " ten years old and upward," who 
cannot sign their own names than any other State in the 
American Union. In the long procession of illiterates we 
lead the van. The world looks on, it beholds our naked- 
ness, and like Adam we are not ashamed ; although with 
not so good reason as he. Listen to what we would gladly 
keep secret for very confusion of face: In 1880 22.9 per 
cent, of the white people — that is more than one in five — 
" ten years old and upward " could not write. I know of 
no reason for supposing that the percentage is less in 1888. 
In 1870, the white illiterate vote in Georgia was 21,899; 
in 1880, 28,571 ; the negro illiterate vote in 1870 was 
100,551; in 1880, 116,516. 



14 



INVINCIBLES. 

But there are those who are blind to facts and impene- 
trable by argument. Some of them I know and could 

name. 

The man who looks wise and solemn, as if delivering a 
new found philosophy, and makes answer to any plea that 
can be made for better schools, " mere book-learning is not 
enough to make good citizens," and relapses into self-satis- 
fied silence, that man is "invincible by any force the adver- 
sary may bring against him." He thinks his little com- 
monplace truism is an argument against public schools. 
As if because "man cannot live by bread alone" he had 
better eat no bread at all. 

There are two things about a man like this that I cannot 
make out : he is generally a man of more than aver- 
age book-learning and he is generally inclined to be pious 
and is frequently a preacher. Does he really believe 
that knowledge is in itself favorable to vice? that " ignor- 
ance is the mother of devotion ?" What risks he took in 
knowing so much ! Do not argue with a man like this; he 
is "as one born out of due time;" he belongs of right to 
the thirteenth century. Yet you dare not disregard him; 
for like other dea^d things he is capable of much mischief. 

Another invinci..ie man is he who meets your plea for 
half a million children with the statement that " there are 
educated people in the penitentiary." Tell him, if you 
will waste words on him, that his logic should keep all 
ignorant people out of the penitentiary, he will stare at you 
in a pitying way and tell you that you don't understand the 
subject. 

There is another the friends of popular education need 
not argue wi^^h — this man is not stupid, he is mean — the 
man, who believes that education will raise the price of 
wages and enable tenants and employes to keep accounts. 

There may be many more equally invincible by argu- 
ments or facts, but I mention one more only — with him 
you can do nothing till he is " born again." 



15 



A SMALL WATCH -DOG. 



It is a delicate mattter for a public speaker to run the 
risk of being personal, but I am tolerably safe ; he is not 
here to-night ; it is against his principle to attend meetings 
in the interest of education. Besides, he is a busy man ; 
he is fully employed. Indeed, he has a '' mission " and he 
devotes himself to it. By the votes of ignorance he is a 
member of the Legislature. His consuming desire is to 
save, or preLeuJ to .save, \v!r!ch suits his purpose far bettter, 
the people's money for them. He votes against all appro- 
priations or for the lowest sum, not because it is enough to 
accomplish the needed work, but because it is the lowest 
sum. All rules, they say, have exceptions. His exception 
is to vote the hiy;hest sum when it concerns him or his. 

With this slight exception he is consistent. He votes 
against the Department of Agriculture, although better 
farming is the basic condition of prosperity, although 
agriculture is the least understood business in the world, 
and we are further behind in this greatest of all human 
occupations than in anything else. If he gets a chance he 
will vote against the School of Technology, so splendidly 
begun, so greatly needed and so rich in blessings to Georgia, 
because he don't understand the subjer' -^nd can't miss a 
chance to save the people's money for them. Georgia may 
be rich in undiscovered minerals, Alabama and Tennessee 
may be outstripping her, but what is all this to him, saving 
the peoples money for them. He meets a proposition to 
appoint the best geologist, for a book-keepers salary, with 
ridicule. He sneers at the " fellow who goes around with 
a' hammer tapping rocks," and looks to the gallery for 
applause. And men of sense submit to such as he. 

Parasitic insects may rob the barnyards of poultry, slay the 
hogs in the field, blight the grapes in the vineyards, rot the 
potatoes and destroy fruit trees by the million ;]|costing the 
people untold thousands of dollars. Yet, when France is 
redeeming her vineyards by the researches of science, and 



16 

the civilized world follows her example, if some bold man 
were to move the appointmeut of a State entomologist to 
investigate causes and discover remedies, this saviour of the 
people's money runs to the dictionary to find the meaning 
of the word, grins the grin of ignorance and conceit, and 
ridicules science by talking of wasting the people's money 
on " bug hunters," And men of sense submit to such as he. 

RIGHT ONCE. 

Tell this man about the more than halt million children 
of school age in Georgia, whose per capita claim — should 
they all attend the miserable little three-months schools and 
the wretched shanties and log pens called school houses, 
could hold them — is 87 cents per annum; tell him how 
poor and needy the people are; tell him what evils such 
masses of ignorance portend for the future of free institu- 
tions ; the little saviour of the people's money frowns and 
grins by turns, tells you that his father never went to school 
a day in his life 'and that he himself picked up all he 
knows. I believe him, now ; he is right for once, and 
unconsciously honest in what he says. And men of sense 
submit to such as he — than whom Georgia has no greater 
enemy. 

To this man I make no appeal. But I do appeal to better 
men than he. I appeal to the honest constituents he has 
deceived with his pretentious zeal for economy that wastes 
what it spends. 

How many and great evils grow out of our ignorance 
and starving schools God only knows. But an observing 
and reflecting man may know enough to make language 
impotent lor full expression. 

OUT OF BALANCE. 

Some things, lying on the surface, I mention without dis- 
cussion now. We are losing, for one thing, our best teach- 
ers. Meagre pay drives them into other business or other 
States. Texas has better public schools than Georgia ; so 



17 

has Florida. And because they pay better sahirit's. Their 
training schools are not better than ours, or so good ; but 
they draw teachers from us. And they (b-a\v our people 
away. We beg the world for immigrants and give other 
States emigrants. 

There is another evil, deep and far reaching: Our best 
country people are moving to towns where it is possible. 
They have despaired of the hall-taught three months schools 
in the country and they move to town with the hope of 
bettering the opportunities of their ehiUh-en for education. 
The results are evil. Town life increases exj)enses ; absen- 
teeism reduces the |)roductive value of the farms; thev ^'■et 
into debt ; the farms are consumed ; unless they all turn 
traders they drift into idleness, if not into drink and vice 
If they go into trade, most of them fail. The equilibrium 
of population is destroyed ; there are more people in town 
than town business can support, while the country is drained 
of its energy and intelligence. In all this, movement there 
is a sort of natural selection that tends to leave in the coun- 
try by and by only the most helpless and incapable. When 
towns grow rich and the country grows poor, the State dies 
of fatty degeneration of the heart. 

SIX MONTHS SCHOOLS WILL KEDEEM AGiaCULTURE. 

Ten years of thorough-going six months schools for the 
halt million children of Georgia who live in the country 
will develop our farming interests more than improved im- 
plements, intensive farming — than all the Farmer's Alliance 
can do in a hundred years, if the Alliance, in its plans for 
bettering the condition of the farmers, leave out the educa- 
tion of the farmers' children. 

Economists speak and write of the necessity of diversified 
industry, if we are to have general or permanent prosperity. 
They are right; but diversified industries are impracticable 
among uneducated people; diversified industries, as charac- 
teristic of the State, will never come to Georgia while half 
a million children — with few exceptions — depend for educa- 



tiou upon our wretched little three months schools — starved 
by stinginess born of ignorance. 

SCHOOLS WILL GIVE FACTORIES. 

Twenty years of thorough-going six months schools will 
build more factories in Georgia than all the syndicates. 
Presently, if Georgia does not educate her people, the syn- 
dicates must stop investments. For, ignorant and j^oor 
people don't want enough, and can't buy enough to justify 
large extension in manufacturing. 

The little New England States, crowded with diversitied 
and prosperous industries, show what thorough-going public 
schools have done in spite of a hard climate and an 
unfriendly soil. 

WHO CAN BE SILENT? 

How can one who loves his State and his fellow men be 
silent when he hears the bitter cry of these half million 
children — most of them country children — who least of all 
can afford to grow up in ignorance — this pitiful, wailing 
cry for learning — not any high and costly learning, but the 
rudiments — the learning that will set them free from the 
ho])elessness of ignorance. 

How can the pulpit, in the example and teaching of 
Jesus — bound to concern itself in whatever vitallyconcerns 
the welfare of the human race — how can the ])ulpit bo silent 
when it hears this cry? But does it hear? Alas! there 
are some pulpits that, "having ears hear not, and having 
eyes see not." 

How can the press — the press that both reflects and 
molds public opinion — if it had no other motive than self- 
interest, seeking to extend circulaaon, how can the press 
be silent? 

From our noble and well-loved Governor down to the 
humblest soldier wh*^ followed him with Lee's heroes in 
Virginia — down to the humblest negro who trusts iiim lor 
justice and mercy, let every Georgian heed, with pitying 



19 

heart, the cry of our half million children for knowledge 
and command the State to give them bread instead of 
stones. 

In this discussion and appeal I have said nothing of the 
two races" that make un the population of Georgia, as to 
their special needs and perils. Nor will I. The plea I 
make is for the whole people — in the Constitution as in 
the Gospel ; in the statute law as in the righteousness of God, 
the claims and the rights of these two peoples are equal. 

Georgia, exercising the common sense that respects facts, 
has separate schools for the two races. This, as I have 
taught a hundred times north and south, is best; and it is 
necessary for both races. But Georgia must make adequate 
provision for all her children. Only so can Georgia do 
justice by them ; only so can Georgia prosper with them. 
The right education of the whole people, the real and per- 
manent betterment of our schools, this is the question of 
questions belore the General Assembly, the most vital of 
interests its wis^lom can promote or its inattention destroy. 



